The Rise of the Goose Creek Men

Abstract

We have already seen that West Indians were not preeminent amongst the Goose Creek men. Even less evidence exists to support the characterization of the “Barbadian” party (in whatever incarnation) as “Anglican.” In the first place, Carolina—uniquely in the annals of English colonization in North America—came into being without a recorded clerical presence or even any religious overtones. We find no John Winthrop, John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams, Fr. John White, S.J., or William Penn at Ashley River and no John Donne gave a sermon at Paul’s Cross to godspeed settlers; indeed, we find no clergyman recorded at all in the colony prior to 1695.¹⁵² Ashley’s lack of enthusiasm for the established church and the corresponding official countenancing of toleration undoubtedly translated into proprietary hesitation (or even deliberate omission) to deal with their province’s religious affairs.